In early 2022, the Heber-Overgaard Community Resource Network, or HOCRN, was established in hopes of transforming the unincorporated community of 2,340 people. They sought to connect people to services, create a sense of community and help their neighbors.
In the last two years, they raised $40,000 to launch a community garden, set up an around-the-clock help line at 928-243-8351 and opened a thrift store that has raised most of their money.
The original goal was to provide support services to the fire district for people in trouble. But the group’s mission rapidly expanded.
Volunteer Director John Piva detailed the accomplishment of the group at the last Navajo County Board of Supervisors meeting. HOCRN has deployed 13,500 hours of volunteer effort to support a range of community groups and activities, including the help line, food bank, education scholarships, senior center, Christmas gifts for low-income kids, and 21 gardening classes that have reached nearly 800 residents. The group also has a van to help people get around.
“We don’t know how to say no, and we really believe we can do anything we set our minds to,” said Piva.
The group helps coordinate and amplify the efforts of other community groups including eight churches, three other thrift stores, the Salvation Army, the Lions Club, the Golden Mustangs, the community library, the American Legion, Tall Pines Animal Rescue, the Senior Angel Tree Program, the Crisis Response Team, the local Light-Hearted Ladies, Pet Allies, the Food Bank, Just 4Kids, Fishers of Men, Pine Needlers, and others.
Navajo County Supervisor Daryl Seymore contributed $4,000 from his constituent funds budget to the group. He also extolled the group as a model for the many unincorporated communities where community groups have shouldered many of the responsibilities of government in order to build a safe, kind, functioning community.
Seymore said the group has the advantage in Heber of working with an effective senior center, school district, fire district, and chamber of commerce.
“They have no city funds, no tribal funds,” said Seymore. “They help the Sheriff’s Department when it comes to keeping drugs out of the community. But it’s also a tourist place where people come and go. At some point, we have to have a program that can help communities like this that are doing things on their own that are short of being a city.”
He said the county should support such community groups, whether it’s to provide funding or responding to a request to build pickleball courts. The county must support “things we can do to make this a better community,” Seymore said. “They pay taxes. They’re doing things that everybody else does as cities and towns, and we need to help them as a government as well.”
Heber-Overgaard sits about halfway between Payson and Show Low. The median age is 57, and the median household income just $38,000. The community has a 400-student school district with a championship football team. The district benefits from the state’s extra funding for small districts, with a teacher-student ratio of about 13-to-1 and 31 classroom teachers.
The community empties out in the winter, and fills up with RVs in the summer. The median property value is $190,000, with a 72% home ownership rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Supervisor Jason Whiting said, “It’s one of the things I love about the communities up here. You embody what’s best about our communities. Congratulations on the great work you’re doing.”
